Sunshine!!

Sunshine! Bright sunshine and clear sky! I’ve forgotten what it looks like. Wow! It’s nice.

We are in a camp spot in a grassy meadow. It rained all day yesterday so the meadow is an inch or two deep in water here and there. There are no trees in our space and only a few trees nearby. The few trees are just enough to block our portable satellite reception.

But there is sunshine!

I don’t think we have had clear skies in a month or more.  Think of very wet “June gloom”. 

The wetness has not stopped us from having fun and seeing some of the sights.

We spent three days at Watkins Glen State Park in Watkins Glen, New York. Our friends, the Suttons, told us this was a must see and it is. A stream has carved a gorge here that the stream now falls through on its way to Seneca Lake. It falls 13 times or so in a mile and a half and descends about 600 feet. It is an absolutely fantastic walk up the gorge.

Here we are in Watkins Glen.

The walk requires climbing 3,217,213 steps more or less. I may have exaggerated that a bit. That is what my knees and feet tell me the count was, and I believe them.

From there we took an afternoon to see the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York, about 25 miles from Watkins Glen. We thought we would spend a few hours there. We arrived at about 1 PM and left at after 6 PM. We didn’t begin to see it all. Who would think there would be that much to see about glass?

 

Here is the a small part of the gift shop at the Corning Museum

We drove from Watkins Glen to the Niagara Falls area on Thursday in pouring rain. Part of the trip was on freeways.  On the freeway we were in a constant fog of dirt and water thrown into the air by trucks and autos as the screamed pass us. I got used to not being able to see the roadway or where we were going.

Since the trip was only three hours and the rain stopped when we got to our campground we went to see the falls.

I drove to Niagara Falls in 1967 with my mother. I was returning to California from living in Pennsylvania and mom came out to keep me company. I remember driving up to a parking lot and walking over to the falls at which point mom said, “Let’s get going, I’m cold.”  When Brenda and I got to the falls I was shocked at how they really look. I think some things have changes but they are really far more spectacular than my memory of them is.

Of course, now you park a half-mile away. Instead of a few spectators the tour busses are constantly dropping off and picking up folks from all over the world. There are elevators down to the base so you can look up at the falls. There is a platform built out over the river so you can look down at the falls. There are gift shops, imax movies (almost like being there), boat rides, space needles, and I don’t know what else.  It is shocking how things change in only 46 years.

A couple of shots of the American Fall. Horseshoe fall is in the background of the lower picture.

Today (Friday) we went back to see horseshoe falls better. We crossed into Canada.

I thought the US side was touristy until I saw the Canada side. No doubt about it, the Canadians do ‘touristy’ up right. They even have a Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville place overlooking the falls.

Tomorrow we take the RV into Canada where gasoline looks to be about $5.00 per US gallon.

 

Cute, isn't it. this trailer just pulled in at the campground.